By: Christian Goeckel

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The eyes of the college football world were glued to their collective phone screens this past Tuesday. Multiple Facebook Live streams showed a podium centered in the cafeteria of Scotland High in Laurinburg, North Carolina.

A crowd, made up of coaches, teachers, family, and ever present media members gathered near the podium. Zamir White, the nation’s number one back was set to announce where he would be spending his college years. Dressed in a black suit, with a small red boutonniere attached to his left lapel, White waited patiently for his moment.

Set next to the podium were a multitude of hats. Ohio State, North Carolina, and Clemson were all represented, but to everyone in the know this was a two team race. Alabama, who seems to have 25 star running backs on their team, and Georgia, who with the hiring of Kirby Smart has been doing all it can to emulate them. The Dawgs were the favorite, but nothing is ever certain in a world of 17 year old dudes.

Without the typical antics of college announcements, White stepped up to the podium. After a quick thank you to his school and a tearful nod to his mother, White lifted the black hat with the ‘Power G’ and placed it squarely on his head. A quick “Dawg nation, baby!” and it was over. The number one running back in the class of 2018 is a Dawg.

Now, why should dawg fans be any more excited by this signing than any other five star Georgia pulls in? It’s a fair question.

The last few consensus number one backs, excluding Fournette, have been…. alright. Ronald Jones II (USC) has rushed for back to back 1,000 yards seasons in a fairly weak Pac -12. Kelvin Taylor (Florida) struggled to find his footing in college and is now a free agent in the NFL. The answers are a couple of things.

Number one, this guy is special. In three years White, the man fittingly called “Zeus”, has rushed for over 5,000 yards.

He followed up an outstanding 2,159 yards his sophomore year with 1,693 more as a junior. Some may ask “Why the drop off?”. When you factor in that his team blew the doors off of everyone in the North Carolina 4A on the way to an undefeated regular season and Final 4 appearance the answer seems pretty clear.

The guy pretty much ran for 1,693 yards in 15 first halves. His mix of raw power, and ability to hit top speed at the line has a lot of people thinking of a certain number 3 who happened to also hail from North Carolina.

Number two, timing. When White suits up for his first game for the dawgs it will be against Austin Peay, on September 1st, 2018.

By then Sony Michel and Nick Chubb will be with their respective NFL teams, Jacob Eason will be a junior and future top 5 pick, and Georgia’s offensive line will be nothing but 350 pound five stars.

He will have to share time with the likes of Brian Herrien, Elijah Holyfield, and D’Andre Swift, but if Alabama has taught us anything it’s that you can never have too many backs.

A slow start to Georgia’s 2018 class has taken a huge step forward. Kirby Smart continues to stock the cabinets that were left surprising bare by Mark Richt.

White is the highest rated back Georgia has picked up since Isaiah Crowell and everything points to him continuing and elevating Georgia’s claim as Running Back U.